Ira Abrams
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Listening to a talk by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche this morning, I came across this beautiful expression of post-meditation awareness of emptiness: “…if you are free… from hope and fear [even] a little bit, [then] the way you look at life is like how a mother would look at her children playing in the sand and building a sandcastle. You will look at them and you might even engage and get along with the children, play with them, but deep inside you also know this is not really this castle; this is a sand castle. So you have this sort of a compassion and also the awareness: compassion to play along with the children but also the wisdom and the guts to sort of say, “okay, time to pack up, go home!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQdUbzVWhC8, 24:32)
And… way overposting, but it looks like there is room here… someone posted this today on facebook, from the late Thich Nhat Hanh:
I Am Not in Here
I have a disciple in Vietnam who wants to build a stupa for my ashes when I die. He and others want to include a plaque with the words “Here lies my beloved teacher.” I told them not to waste the temple land. “Do not put me in a small pot and put me in there!” I said. “I don’t want to continue like that. It would be better to scatter the ashes outside to help the trees to grow.
I suggested that, if they still insist on building a stupa, they have the plaque say, “I am not in here.” But in case people don’t get it, they could add a second plaque, “I am not out there either.” If people still don’t understand, then you can write on the third and last plaque, “I may be found in your way of breathing and walking.”
This body of mine will disintegrate, but my actions will continue me. In my daily life, I always practice to see my continuation all around me. We don’t need to wait until the total dissolution of this body to continue—we continue in every moment. If you think that I am only this body, then you have not truly seen me. When you look at my friends, you see my continuation. When you see someone walking with mindfulness and compassion, you know he is my continuation. I don’t see why we have to say “I will die,” because I can already see myself in you, in other people, and in future generations. Even when the cloud is not there, it continues as snow or rain. It is impossible for a cloud to die. It can become rain or ice, but it cannot become nothing. The cloud does not need to have a soul in order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. I will never die. There will be a dissolution of this body, but that does not mean my death. I will continue, always.
– Thich Nhat Hanh, in “At Home In The World”
Thanks for the link to the article by Joh Makransky. I found it striking to see how clearly and thoroughly the Mahayana Sutras dealt with the historical Buddha question. They were very sophisticated and they addressed exactly the problem we ourselves face in approaching this material–can we have confidence in our own Buddha Nature? For example, Makransky provides this exchange from one of the Sutras:
“Shariputra, another disciple of Shakyamuni, now wonders whether Subhuti will teach perfect wisdom by his own power or through the power of the Buddha. Subhuti, knowing his mind, says to Shariputra:
‘Whatever, Shariputra, the Buddha’s disciples teach, make known, explain, proclaim, reveal, all of it is to be known as the Tathagata’s [the Buddha’s] work, for they train themselves in the Dharma taught by the Tathagata, they realize its true nature (dharmata) directly for themselves (sak ̋atk ̧) and take possession of it. Having realized its true nature directly, and taken possession of it, nothing that they teach, make known, explain, proclaim, or reveal is inconsistent with the true nature of the Dharma. It is just the outpouring of the Tathagatha’s demonstration of Dharma. Whatever those sons of the family demonstrate as the true nature of Dharma, they do not bring into contradiction with that nature.’”
